Family Health Center's $10.3 million expanded facility to open Monday in Kalamazoo (photo gallery)

KALAMAZOO, MI – The expanded main location of the Family Health Center will open Monday, giving the health care organization the capacity to serve twice as many patients.

“We currently serve 23,000 patients (per year),” said Denise Crawford,
president and chief executive officer of Family Health Center Inc., “and
at the conclusion of this expansion, we’re planning to serve 43,000.”

Work has been completed on the $10.3 million expansion of the 117 W. Paterson St. operation, which was made possible by a $9.3 million federal Affordability Care Act stimulus grant in October of 2010 and included $1 million in matching funds from the health center.

Construction work, which began early in 2011, attaches the new construction to a facility that has been at the corner of Paterson and North Burdick Street for 41 years and which was expanded three times previously.

Health center staffers have continued to work there but had outgrown the space, Crawford said.

Courtesy PhotoA ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony occurred on Aug. 12, 2011 for the new Family Health Center facility. From left is: Denise Crawford, president and CEO of the Family Health Center; Moses Walker, chairman of the FHC Board; Dr. James Galloway, assistant U.S. Surgeon General; Dr. Elizabeth Burns, president and CEO of the MSU/Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies; Kalamazoo Mayor Bobby Hopewell; and Crawford's son, Jahmir Frank.

“We had reached our maximum capacity,” Crawford said.

The entire main facility was closed to patients on Thursday and the new section will open on Monday, July 9. Health center staffers began relocating from the old section to the new facility in Thursday.

“We actually are moving in this weekend,” Crawford said.

Renovation work will begin Monday on the old section of the main facility.

“The old facility will become a construction zone and we will be renovate it,” Crawford said.

It will get new carpeting and flooring and other redesigns, she said, so that it matches the new building. All of the Family Health Center's six other locations in Kalamazoo County, positioned to provide more convenient access to patients, will remain open.

The expansion project adds a two-story, 52,000-squre-foot structure to the facilities at the corner of West Paterson and North Burdick Street, giving them a total of about 75,000 square feet of space.

Crawford said the expansion was necessary to allow the Family Health Center to try to serve the estimated 70,000 poor, underinsured and/or underserved people in Kalamazoo County.

“That’s why we applied and received the grant,” she said.

The Family Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center, meaning it can be reimbursed for designated costs and is a primary Medicaid service provider. It joins emergency rooms in that it is not allowed to turn away any person seeking medical care.

“We are here to serve the poor and indigent and underserved population of Kalamazoo County,” Crawford said. “But we will serve anyone.”

The expansion project grows the number of patient examination rooms at the main facility to 104. It previously had 34. It has allowed the center to add the equivalent of 56 full-time positions, bringing its total workforce at all seven locations to about 200 positions. Of those, about 98 are at the main facility, Crawford said.

The construction work also put the equivalent of 42 construction people to work for about 18 months.

The Family Health Center’s staff is about 50 percent support staff and 50 percent professionals. The latter include approximately 25 “providers” (individuals who can bill for the care their provide). They includes physicians, physician assistants, dentists and social workers. Other posts include 10 nurses, 10 directors, and four administrative officers, Crawford said.

The Patterson Street facility is one-stop shopping for health care, providing care that only a limited number of the Family Health Center's other locations can, such as dental care and behavioral health care (social work and clinical therapists, psychological services).

Its main telephone number (269-349-2641) and hours will remain unchanged – open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.